Historic Route 66
Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert, AZ

This 52,000-acre National Landmark (designated in 1906) houses the largest and most colorful collection of petrified wood in the world. Where a grand forest stood 225 million years ago, now the largest concentration of petrified trees lies strewn about on the desert floor surrounded by panoramic views of the Painted Desert. The fossilized remains of the amphibians, reptiles and early dinosaurs that once thrived here in the Triassic period are embedded in the sandstone cliffs. The fossil collection is considered by the scientific world to be an attraction onto itself with fossils dating back 200 million years. Traces of prehistoric humans who lived here over the last 10,000 years can also be found in the petroglyphs and artifacts they left behind. This site boasts historic structures, archaeological sites, a fascinating ecosystem, and an impressive Route 66 history.

In the northern section of the Petrified Forest National Park, rainbow-colored badland hills and buttes stretch over 160 miles across the 93,500 acres of the Painted Desert. It took millions of years to create this natural canvas of unimaginable design from shifts in the earth’s crust brought about by volcanoes and earthquakes. Colorful sediments of bentonite clay and sandstone, stacked in elegant layers, creates an ever-changing colorful display as the Arizona sun moves across the sky.